May 21, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association (NVMA) says the country loses N4.5 billion annually to Newcastle disease caused by inadequate veterinary services.
Newcastle disease is a highly contagious disease in birds caused by a paramyxovirus. Birds affected by the disease include fowls, turkeys, geese, ducks, pheasants, partridges, guinea fowl and other wild and captive birds such as ostriches, emus and rhea.
Speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, NVMA President, Dr. Moses Arokoyo, decried poor attention accorded to veterinary doctors in the country.
He said Nigeria presently had a ratio of one veterinarian to 3000 or 4000 animals, describing the ratio as grossly inadequate to address the nation’s disease burden as well as nutrition security.
Arokoyo said 75% of emerging and re-emerging diseases were from animals. According to him, the country will continue to have an escalation of zoonotic disease failure until it employs a large number of veterinarians in remote parts of the country.
“If we want to address the problem and ensure food security as President Bola Tinubu has declared an emergency on food security, then we need to change the status quo. We need to employ more veterinarians; we need to build capacity; empower the veterinarians to do the needful to secure our food and our source of protein,” he said.
